Despite being a leader in the smartphone industry Samsung has somehow always retained the image of a follower rather than an innovator like Apple or Google. The label does have a degree of validity as former employees of Samsung would admit so themselves. Jay Subhash a former senior product manager who left Samsung in April says, “The company is in somewhat of a Catch-22 when it comes to changing its culture.”
In light of the falling smartphone sales, Samsung is under pressure to re invent itself. The problem lies in the fact that the Confucian culture of Korea in general remains a secret for its industrial success, those who defy norms, challenge their bosses on creative issues or generally stand out don’t last long. Such a culture holistically prohibits change which obviously adds on to industrial and economic efficiency but it ends up compromising on creativity and innovation.
Samsung has wanted to address this issue for quite some time, but it requires a paradigm shift in the way the employees work and feel about their job. An effort was made this summer to cater a more worker friendly environment by allowing workers to wear shorts to work on weekends, this was done at the main Suwon campus south of Seoul. Flexible working hours were introduced along with maternity leave so that the workers don’t have to worry about job security.
Chairman Lee Kun-hee who is 72, remains hospitalized as a result of a heart attack in May. He had a reputation for managing the company with a sense of “permanent crisis.” The ascension of his Harvard educated son Jay Y. Lee, 46 could lead to favorable changes that benefit the company, however bringing change that effects the whole company creatively is no easy task considering the size of the company and has a possibility of back-firing. Samsung really needs to adopt a culture that welcomes innovation, openness and creativity, but the fact remains, that doing so may jeopardize it’s strongest assets, its militaristic hierarchy which allows it to outpace its competition through high levels of efficiency and productivity. This is no easy task and Samsung understands the problem and has been at it for quite some time now.
Samsung made an effort with its “Creative Lab” program through which employees can individually or in teams take a year’s time to develop an idea if it is deemed worthy of pursuit. Samsung reports that it had 14,000 ideas last year through this and some other initiatives that the company took. So that ought to bring some much needed changes.
It must also be taken in to account that the culture is also constantly evolving with the global society and younger employees don’t just want a healthy pay but require more from their employers. This is bringing about gradual but consistent change in the work culture.
A current Samsung employee suggests that “Change is inevitable.” This may hold some truth but perhaps the important question is whether Samsung can evolve with the particular needs of the industry and maintain its position at the top utilizing the changing trends of society and channeling them in their products lucratively.
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